Metal desk top



Nov. 2, 1954 B. A. wolNA ErAL 2,693,402

l METAL DESK 'i'oP Filed oct. 2, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet l NOV- 2, 1954 B. A. wolNA ETAL METAL DESK TOP 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 2, 1950 IIVVENTOR- Wma Af/.Mw

Nov. 2, 1954 B. A. wolNA ErAL 2,693,402

METAL DESK TofD Filed Oct. 2, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent Ofltce i 2,693,402 Patented Nov. 2, 1954 METAL DESK TOP Benjamin A. Woina, Salem, and Lawrence E. fBlazey,

Bay Village, hio, assgnors to Republic Steel Corporation, Cleveland, hio, a corporation of New Jersey Application October 2, 1950, Serial No. 188,038

6 Claims. (Cl. S12-330) This invention relates to improvements in desk top structures.

The customary office desks in general use include a desk top plate which, in a wooden desk, usually comprises a glued together assemblage of wooden boards or narrow planks. Below the top and supporting 1t are the usual pedestals and one or more desk slides are fre quently provided which are disposed at the top of the pedestals but below the desk top proper. A central drawer is likewise provided which is usually guided by the sides of the pedestals and supported wholly below the desk top.

With sheet metal desks the construction is substantially the same except that frequently the top plate of the desk is covered with a linoleum cover and, in addition, frequently the pedestal ends come up and flange over the top of the desk top.

According to the present invention a new relation of parts is provided for. In lieu of the slides and the central drawer being disposed below the desk top, these slides and the drawer are disposed within the desk top proper, particularly in a desk top designed to have e appearance of a unitary or distinctive top element as such. With such a construction it is of course necessary to provide space in the desk top to accommodate both the slides and the central drawer if such drawer is used. While the slides can be made relatively small in their vertical dimensions, slightly greater depth must be provided to accommodate the drawer in the top structure assemblage.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a set of sheet metal assemblages including metallic top plate, linoleum cover, reinforcing members, channels, and irons all disposed in a compact vertical relation so that the final desk top assemblage resembles a conventional desk provided with a relatively thick plank-like top. Such plank-like top has, of course, a thickness greater than that of the conventional wooden desk top, but its vertical dimension must be limited so as not to give a top heavy appearance to the desk. The desk slides and drawer have a configuration conforming with that of the desk top so that they are practically invisible when closed in the top of the desk.

Further and other objects of the present invention will be hereinafter set forth in the accompanying speciflcation and claims and shown in the drawings which, by way of illustration, show what We now consider to be one and a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view showing the desk top assemblage in place;

Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the desk top assemblage removed from the desk and turned over, the view being taken substantially on line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a detailed sectional view of the rear edge of the desk top assemblage, the view being taken substantially on line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a similar sectional View of the front edge of the desk top assemblage, the View being taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 2 showing the end portion of the assemblage;

Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 7 is a detailed sectional view taken on line 7-7 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 8 is a sectional View taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 9 is a perspective View of the desk top assemblage receiving apertures 27 (see Fig. 2).

showing the slides and the center drawer partly drawn out:

Fig. 9A is a fragmentary end view of a desk drawer;

Fig. 9B is a fragmentary end view of a desk slide.

Fig. 10 is a sectional view showing the manner in which the guide rail channels support the drawer or desk slides;

Fig. 1l is a detail sectional view taken on line 11--11 of Fig. 2;

Fig. l2 is a broken away front view of one of the corner portions of the desk showing one of the end caps removed in dotted lines; and

Fig. 13 is another detailed view taken on line 13-13 of Fig. 5, looking in the direction of the arrows.

In more detail, the top writing surface of the desk preferably comprises a sheet of linoleum designated 20 (see Figs. l, 3 and 4). For supporting the linoleum a sheet metal base plate 21 is provided. This sheet metal base plate at the rear of the desk is curved arcuately downwardly, as shown at 22 in Fig. 3, and at the front of the desk such plate is curved arcuately downwardly, as shown at 23 in Fig. 4, and is provided with an inturned lip portion 24. The curved portions 22 and 23 substantially form circular arcs. Since the desk top is shown turned over in Figs. 3 and 4, the curves 22, 23 curve upward from the base plate 21.

For reinforcing the base plate and providing suitable rigidity a pair of trough-like flanged channels 25 are provided (see Fig. 2). The base portions of the troughs of these channels (see Fig. 7) are preferably secured by spot welding to the base plate 21. Flanges 26 of these trough-like channels are provided with a number of bolt Extending across the flanged trough-like channels are a pair of flanged U-channels generally designated 28 (see Figs. 6 and 2). The U-flanged channels 28 are preferably secured by bolts 29 (see Fig. 2) which pass through the holes 27 in the flanges 26. By selecting the holes which are to receive the bolts and shifting channels 28, such channels can be placed at desired distances apart depending on the size of the slide or drawer which is to be used.

The channels 28 just described (see Fig. 6) also have secured thereto, as by spot welding, guide channels 30. These guide channels 30 constitute the guide rails for receiving the guide rail slides on the desk slide or desk drawer (see Fig. l0). In this figure the cooperating guide rails on the drawers or slides are indicated at 31.

Limit stops 32 are preferably secured by spot welding to the flanges 33 of the U-shaped channels 28 (see Figs. 6, 3 and 2).

At the ends of the desk (see Figs. 5 and 8) there are U-channels 35. The flanges of these U-channels are secured by spot welding to the flanges 26 of the troughshaped channels 25. Fixed to the channels 35 (see Fig. 8) by spot welding are guide channels 36 which receive the guide rails on the cooperating desk slide or desk drawer. It will be understood that there is a cross channel member 35 at both ends of the desk (see Fig. 2). Disposed at intervals within the channel 35 there are nuts 37 (see Fig. 8) which are welded to the inside of the channel. These nuts receive the bolts which attach the pedestal to the desk.

Front reinforcing element Extending completely across the desk at the front are bent up sheet metal members 40 (see Fig. 4). These members 40 have flange portions 4l which extend over the flanges 33 of the trough-shaped channels 28. Such flanges 41 are also shown in Fig. 2 and the fastening bolts are indicated at 42.

As shown in Fig. 4, the member 4t) abuts against the base plate 21 and it is preferably secured thereto at intervals by spot welding. The member 40 extends within the curved flange 23 and near its end is provided with a bent back lip portion 44. The lip or flange portion 44 extends adjacent the` lip 24 and a linoleum fastening clip 45 is provided having a bead portion which extends over the surface of the linoleum. This linoleum clip member 45 is secured to the reinforcing member 40 by screws 46.

At the rear of the desk (see Figs. 3 and 11) there is a substantially similar construction, i. e., there is a member 40a provided with a flange 41a which is adapted to be bolted to flange 33. There is a flange 44a receiving the linoleum clip 45a and the bent end 22 of plate 21 also has an inturned flange 24a. Screws 46a secure these parts together.

To complete the semi-circular curvature at the rear edge of the desk there is a sheet metal member 47 which has an inturned flange 48 which abuts over the top of the linoleum clip strip 45a (see Figs. 3 and l1). Member 47 is provided at its ends with inturned flanges 52. To secure member 47 in place a number of Z bars 49 are provided (see also Fig. 2). These Z bars are fastened to member 47 by screws 50 which take into nuts 51 on the underside of the Z bars. The lower flanges of the Z bars 49 are welded to the flange 41a of member 40a.

End cap construction At each end of the desk top there is a sheet metal end cap stamping 54. This sheet metal cap has extended flanged portions 55 which are preferably spot welded to the sheet metal base plate 21. In order to provide room for the end flanged portions 55 member 40a is notched at the end as indicated at 56 in Fig. 13. Each end cap 54 is provided with a plurality of bolt receiving apertures such as 60 (see Fig. 2). These bolt receiving apertures are adapted to receive bolts which take into the weld nuts 60a in channels 35 (see Fig. 8). Bolt holes 61 are also provided in the U-flange of channel 28 (see Fig. 6). Suitable weld nuts are provided as indicated at 62 to receive the bolts which pass through the bolt aperture 61. The bolt apertures 60 and 61 are for the purpose of attaching the desk top assemblage to the pedestals. The end caps 54 are also preferably spot welded to channels 35 where the flange 54a of the end cap abuts the channel.

Referring now to Fig. 9, this figure illustrates the desk top structure and shows a left desk slide generally designated 63, a center drawer 64, and a right desk slide 63. These are shown in this figure partially drawn out. It will be understood that these desk slides and drawer are provided with channel rails which cooperate with the channels 36 and 30 (see Figs. 2 and 10). p

As shown in Fig. 3, the rear edge of the desk top has a substantially semi-circular curvature. This curvature is defined by the curvature of member 47 and by the curvatuer of the linoleum surface which overlies the arcuate curved edge 22 of the base plate.

The front of the desk with the drawer or desk slide slid fully in presents a similar semi-circular curvature. The bottom segment of this semi-circle is completed by the curvature of the front of the desk slide or front of the drawer which has a shape similar to element 47 (see Fig. 9A which shows a center drawer and Fig. 9B which shows a desk slide).

The space for concealing the desk slides or drawer is the space above the top of the linoleum clip (in Fig. 3) but below the clip when the top assemblage is turned over. Substantially the entire height of the .U-flanged channels 28 and 35, less the thickness of their flanges, is available to receive the drawers or slides.

Rigidity of the front edge of the desk is provided for by the reinforcing member 40 (Fig. 4) which extends completely across the front of the desk within the arcuate portion 23. Rigidity of the rear of the desk is provided for by member 40a which likewise extends completely across the desk, Further rigidity is provided for by the closing member 47.

Rigidity at the end of the desk is provided for by the cross U channels 35 which are finally housed in by the end cap stampings 54. As explained before, the end cap stampings are also fastened by spot welding to the base plate 21 and to the U channels 35.

The transverse flange members 28 can be bolted to the flanges 26 of the trough-shaped members and to the flanges 41 and 41a of the front and rear reinforcing members at various lateral positions, depending upon the width of the drawers which it is desired to accommodate, the width of the desk slides, and depending upon the type of pedestal arrangement with which the top is to be used. Pedestals are of different widths and, by placing these members in the proper position and then fastening them by the bolts, interchangeability and adjustability are secured. Where interchangeability or adjustability is not necessary spot welding may be used in lieu of the bolts and nuts.

As will be seen in Figs. 5 and 8, the linoleum strip 20 at its end abuts with and is flush with the marginal edge of the closure cap 54. The surface of the linoleum at the front and rear edge portions of the desk is kept in arcuate shape by the arcuate shapes 22, 23 of the underlying base plate. The edge of the linoleum at these points is retained in position by the linoleum clips 45 and 45a. It will be understood that the linoleum sheet 20 is preferably cemented to the base plate 21.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific desk top herein shown or described but may be embodied in other forms without departure from its spirit.

What is claimed is:

l. Unitary desk top structure adapted to be assembled with upright supporting structures having their upper ends in flatwise abutment with the underside of said top structure to constitute an assembled desk or the like, said top structure having forward and rear edges each substantially semi-circular in outer, sectional contour and said forward and rear edges of the desk top structure being of the same predetermined vertical dimension as each other and as the end edges of said structure, and said top structure comprising a top base plate, parallel reinforcing members extending from end-to-end of the structure beneath and against said plate and spaced from each other, said members having a vertical dimension of between about one-third and one-half of the aforesaid predetermined dimension, metallic end cap members extending respectively along the end edges of the top structure and covering said entire predetermined vertical dimension, drawer supporting reinforcing members secured transversely of said first-mentioned reinforcing members and extending between forward and rear edges, said drawer supporting members having a vertical dimension substantially complementing that of the first mentioned reinforcing members to make up therewith substantially the aforesaid predetermined vertical dimension, said top plate along the forward and rear edges being curved downwardly to dene substantially half of the aforesaid semi-circular contour, a layer of non-metallic surfacing material covering said top plate and extending over said curved edges, and a plurality of drawer-like elements suspended on the drawer supporting members, each drawer being slidable out of the forward edge of the top structure and each drawer having a forward edge defining structure which has an outer contour of substantially half a semi-circle, to constitute, with the first-mentioned curved edge of the top base plate, the aforesaid semi-circular edge.

2. Top structure as described in claim l, in which the transverse drawer supporting members have removable attaching means for fastening the same to the first-mentioned reinforcing members, said first-mentioned reinforcing members comprising structure for receiving the attaching means of the drawer supporting members in a plurality of selectable positions.

3. A metal desk top comprising, in combination, a base plate having arcuately curved front and rear edge portions, a pair of trough-shaped flanged channels with their trough portions secured to the base plate and with flanged portions, front and rearsheet metal reinforcing members secured to said base plate within the arcuately curved portions, said members also having flanged portions, a plurality of end reinforcing channel members secured to the flanges of the trough-shaped channels and to the flanges of the front and rear reinforcing members, a pair of intermediate reinforcing U-shaped channel members having flanges which are attached to the flanges of the trough-shaped channels, and to the flanges of the front and rear reinforcing members, end cap members attached to the base plate and housing the end reinforcing channel members, at least two of said reinforcing channel members, which succeed each other along the top assembly, having drawer guide rails, and a drawer device sliding in said guide rails and having a front edge portion below one of the aforesaid base plate edge portions, said end caps projecting downwardly sufficiently from the base plate and said top including supplemental edge portions projecting sulciently downwardly at localities of the base plate edge portions not occupied by the front edge of the drawer, to provide a complete edge structure for the top which has a lower boundary conforming with the lower boundary of the front edge portion of the drawer device.

4. A metal desk top comprising, in combination, a sheet metal base plate having arcuately curved front and rear edge portions, a pair of trough-shaped flanged channels with their trough portions secured to said base plate, a pair of end U-shaped flanged channels attached to the flanges of the trough-shaped channels, a pair of intermediate U-shaped flanged channels also attached to the flanges of the trough-shaped channels, and guide rails carried by said end and intermediate U-shaped channels for receiving drawer and desk slide guide rails, said U-shaped channels, by their height, providing desk drawer and desk slide space in said desk top, said top including cooperating edge structure depending from the base plate at regions other than localities to be traversed by drawer and slide devices, for laterally enclosing said desk drawer and desk slide space.

5. The invention according to claim 4 wherein front and rear reinforcing members are provided for the front and rear edges of the desk, said reinforcing members being disposed within the arcuately flanged portions of the base plate and provided with attaching flanges which are secured to the flanges of the end and intermediate U-shaped channels, said reinforcing members also having inturned flanged portions in overlapping relation with inturned flanged portions on said base plate at the terminating edge of the arc shape portion, a linoleum cover sheet overlying the base plate, and linoleum clips attached to the inturned flanged edges of the reinforcing member and to the inturned flanged portion of the base plate.

6. A sheet metal desk top comprising a sheet metal base plate having an arcuately curved edge portion terminating in an inwardly directed flanged portion, an interior reinforcing element fast to the base plate and extending along said edge and having a pair of horizontally spaced, inwardly turned flanged portions, one of said last-mentioned flanged portions being disposed in overlapping relation to the flanged portion of the base plate, a linoleum clip secured to said one of the inwardly turned flanges of the reinforced element and cooperating with the inwardly directed flange of the base plate, a supplemental closure member having a flange abutting the linoleum clip and having an extended arcuate portion and a Z clip secured to the supplemental closure member and also secured to the other inwardly directed flange of the reinforcing element.

References Cited in the llle of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 90,708 Goodman Sept. 19, 1933 1,817,453 Hunter Aug. 4, 1931 1,826,670 Ohnstrand Oct. 6, 1931 2,061,143 De St. Mart Nov. 17, 1936 2,090,679 Jones Aug. 24, 1937 2,094,805 Meier Oct. 5, 1937 2,099,122 Kreisler Nov. 16, 1937 2,263,204 Clark Nov. 18, 1941 

